IMPALA Carbon Calculator
What is the IMPALA Carbon Calculator?
The IMPALA Carbon Calculator is the first bespoke carbon calculator and environmental impact measurement tool for the independent recorded music sector, built with the support of the IMPALA membership, championed by Merlin and powered by the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Climate Tools platform. The calculator helps IMPALA’s members measure their carbon footprint and identify hotspots to make members’ ambitions actionable, impactful, and scalable. It also helps collect information on how the independent music sector in Europe is taking environmental action Beyond Carbon. The platform is a part of IMPALA’s Sustainability Programme and supports members to meet their commitments under the Music Climate Pact. Have a look at some of the user testimonials here and start measuring today.
How does it work?
The IMPALA Carbon Calculator can be used to measure the following impacts across your business:
- Office(s): Energy use, Water, Waste
- Staff commuting
- Business travel
- Manufacturing of key product categories
- Distribution
- Key areas of purchased goods (e.g. IT and studio equipment)
- Environmental actions under ‘Beyond Carbon’
For the full measuring scope of the IMPALA Carbon Calculator, please consult our membership carbon report, available here.
The Tools’ methodology is based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporation Standard (GHG Protocol), the most widely used framework defining reporting principles for auditing the GHG emissions of a company. Thanks to calculator updates in April 2024, the tool will be able to display the report results on the basis of the GHG scopes (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), keeping up with climate science and race to zero/SBTI commitments.
The tool is revised constantly by IMPALA’s task force and Julie bicycle updated to make sure members’ carbon reporting is as robust as possible.
This also includes development in terms of internationalisation, especially when it comes to implementing different country factors in the tool for greater accuracy, starting with the US.
The calculator comes with a customised layout and a helpdesk to facilitate carbon accounting, taking into account the analysis of direct emissions from owned or controlled sources and indirect emissions, as well as relevant indirect emissions.
Are you a member of IMPALA? Sign up for free and start tracking your footprint today and join over 100 users who are already tracking their impact.
IMPALA is now calling on all interested members to join the #WeMeasureTogether campaign and use the calculator to produce carbon reports. This will allow IMPALA to create an overview of the sector and develop a carbon baseline. From this understanding it will be possible to develop more targeted pathways for action that will benefit the whole independent music sector. IMPALA members can join the campaign by publishing the visual below and their carbon report, with the #WeMeasureTogether hashtag.
In June 2023, following the European Green Week, IMPALA released its first membership Carbon Calculator report, accessible here.
Have a look at some of the user testimonials here and start measuring today.
Climate investment
As an alternative to carbon offsetting, IMPALA is investigating how its members can support projects that have more immediate systemic impact. Murmur is a climate investment initiative founded by leaders in climate strategy and the creative industries, which enables the worlds of visual arts and music to play their part in combatting the climate crisis. Overseen by a panel of experts, Murmur’s strategic climate fund will direct finance towards the most impactful climate mitigation work they can find.
For more information on IMPALA’s recommendation in terms of climate investment, please consult the following page.
Trailblazers in the sector
In this section, we are featuring the member companies that are leading the way with their sustainability actions. Learn more about them, get inspired and let us know if you want your company to be featured here, all you need to do is fill out the form below!
K7 Music believes in a shared responsibility to tackle the climate crisis. They urge our governments to urgently put in place the best structural and legislative frameworks required to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. !K7 Music also want to take responsibility for their own carbon footprint and reduce it wherever possible. They have developed a company-wide target to decarbonise and significantly reduce the environmental impact of our operations and created a carbon report.
Find their 2021 report here, released ahead of Earth Day 2023.
Environmental sustainability is a priority for Ninja Tune. Our founders, Coldcut, have a long history of environmental activism including support for Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and Music Declares Emergency. We are committed to improving our practices, measuring our footprint and balancing our emissions in a responsible manner. See more here.
Beggars are committed to becoming a carbon negative business – this means that they will aim to reduce their carbon footprint to less than zero, to have the net effect of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rather than adding to it. Taking action on sustainability issues is important to their stakeholders – including artists and employees – and to the continued success of their business. The climate and ecological crisis is one of the great challenges facing humanity and Beggars want its impact as a business to be beneficial to the environment.
We’re committed to monitoring our emissions and we’re always going with the most sustainable methods within our reach to produce and package our records and merchandise. We’re proud contributors to IMPALA’s Carbon Calculator and we monitor and publicise our carbon footprint on a yearly basis. We’ve signed the Music Declares Emergency declaration calling for climate action. In addition, 1% of the payments through tambourhinoceros.net are donated to carbon removal.
The Irish independent record label Paragon Records, along with their sister company Milestone Management, has been doing regular Beach Clean events around the eastern coastline of Ireland since 2015 or so, when they worked with one of their key artists on an ocean plastics documentary in association with The Government of Ireland.
Paragon Records are also supporters of the “No music on a dead planet” initiative and “Music Declare Emergency”. They have also been members of 1% for the Planet since December 2021, and the reason 1% was appealing was because there were clear, tangible deliverables which they as a company needed to prove / satisfy.
Useful materials to get you started
MERLIN – SUPPORTING IMPALA’S CARBON CALCULATOR
A big thank you goes to Merlin, supporting IMPALA’s Carbon Calculator as part of their broader sustainability work. Find our more about Merlin here.
CALCULATOR CONTRIBUTORS
Thanks go to all the IMPALA member companies and associations across Europe who helped raise the finances needed to get our calculator project off the ground (in alphabetical order): !K7 Music Group, Altafonte, Anjunabeats, Because Music, Beggars Group, Cherry Red Records, City Slang, Domino Recording Company, Edel, Encoding Management Service – EMS, Epitaph Records, Everlasting Records, FONO, FUGA, HAIL, Hot Action Records, Irascible Music, Las Vegas Records, Lusitanian Music Publishing, Mouthwatering Records, N.E.W.S. Records, Ninja Tune, Partisan Records, [PIAS], Playground Music Scandinavia, PMI, Roton Music, Secretly Group, TAMBOURHINOCEROS, Two Gentlemen, Warp Records, Zebralution.
About IMPALA’s sustainability programme
The calculator is part of IMPALA’s larger sustainability scheme which encompasses a long-term programme for members, announced in April 2021. The overall ambition is to halve greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 and achieve net zero emissions before 2050, (or sooner if feasible), and measure and disclose greenhouse gas emissions on an annual basis. By 2026, we hope that a majority of our members will have adopted our Climate Declaration for Individual Companies. So far IMPALA has released a sustainability charter in 15 points, practical guidance for members and a climate declaration for members. IMPALA also uses its voice to amplify other climate initiatives from the music sector, see more here.
Do you want to learn more about sustainability?
For all questions about IMPALA’s sustainability programme reach out to krogozar@impalamusic.org.